Metallica's 1991 album Metallica, commonly called The Black Album, sold 598,000 copies in its first U.S. week.
That opening made the record an immediate commercial success and helped it debut at number one on the Billboard 200. The result was notable because Metallica had come from the thrash-metal scene, a style that was often associated with a dedicated niche audience rather than mass-market album sales. The Black Album's streamlined production and memorable singles broadened the band's reach dramatically.
The first-week figure refers to U.S. sales tracked at the album's initial release, not worldwide sales or its eventual lifetime total. The record continued selling for decades, eventually becoming one of the best-selling albums of the Nielsen SoundScan era. Its long-term performance was strengthened by songs such as “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “Wherever I May Roam,” and “Sad but True,” all of which became major parts of Metallica's live repertoire.